Acer beTouch E130 Review

18 Nov 2010 by Jeff Baker

Scoring summary for Acer beTouch E30 review

Pros : Looks good, feels good; long battery life; useful keyboard

Cons : Average camera and a sometimes-lacking touchscreen

Verdict : The beTouch may have the looks and performance, but it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Is it going to be a BlackBerry rival, or aim for the mainstream market as an Android phone with a keyboard? It doesn't fully achieve either, but does have some appeal

Full Review

Specifications

Full Review

This QWERTY phone from Acer has the look of a Nokia E or BlackBerry, but there the similarity stops. It has a touch-screen and, unlike the BlackBerry Torch, Acer's handset is neat and pocket-sized, thanks to its 2.6inch screen.

First impressions

The beTouch E130 is a very tactile phone - it feels good in the hand with its smooth keys and rear casing. The keyboard is also pretty smooth, though it doesn't quite reach the heights of the BlackBerry Bold. We like the fact that unlike Blackberry's phones, there is a full stop in a lower case position. The 0 too, is underneath the number keys - unlike on Nokia phones, where it sits alongside them. It's easy to read the white keys and even in low light, the backlight comes into play - the only thing is that it makes the secondary characters easier to read than the main ones. Despite these grumbles, the keyboard is a very decent attempt.

To speed up typing, the predictive word system offers a number of suggested words as you type away - just tap on the correct one. The central trackball may seem a little out of date when compared with the optical trackpad of the BlackBerry, but it does the job.

Under the screen you'll find four icons; like other Android devices, there are search, home, back, and menu buttons plus there are end and send keys. It's a little different for an Android phone but works well.

Touch me

The touch-screen is not the superior capacitive type; it's a resistive one, so is not as responsive, but is certainly no slouch. It means that there's no multitouch capability - so no pinch and zoom. However, the trackball offers another level of interaction with apps and menus, so it may be that you don't use the touchscreen as much as you would on another Android device.

As is always the case with Android, you need to know which version the handset supports - it's not one-size-fits-all like the iPhone or Windows Phone 7 devices. The beTouch has version 1.6, which is a bit old now, however it still offers a decent speed, although it's lacking features such as internet tethering and the ability to store apps on a removable memory card, rather than built-in memory.

Acer hasn't done much to Android in terms of customisation - but it does have a multimedia screen (which you'll find furthest left on the five home pages). Here it's easy to delve into the photos, video and music that you have on your device.

There is a camera, but at three megapixels it's nothing to write home about - it has no flash and the images tend to be grainy. The display doesn't have the resolution necessary to get a good look at photos or video anyway. Mind you, as it's pretty small, it won't drain your battery too much.

The beTouch E130 may look a bit like a BlackBerry but it can't compete when it comes to email, although it's still not bad. Having said that, being an Android device means it has access to 100,000 apps - something no Blackberry phone could boast.

The Verdict

The Acer beTouch E130 is really a bit of a jack of all trades - not quite being the business device that the BlackBerry Bold is (or boasting such a bright screen), nor being as simple to use as other Android devices. It does look good, though.